Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5O-03463

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis the transport secretary has carried out regarding how the proposed workplace parking levy could affect disabled people accessing employment.

Question reference: S5O-03415

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to reduce excessive waiting times for young people in Lothian to access mental health support.

Question reference: S5O-03295

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with NHS Lothian regarding staff car parking at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Question reference: S5W-22420

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Ash Denham on 26 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consult on the recommendations of the Review of the Regulation of Legal Services (the Roberton Review).

Question reference: S5W-22518

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 24 April 2019

Question reference: S5W-22521

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 24 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the number of babies born with Down syndrome is recorded and, if not, for what reason, and whether NHS boards will be instructed to collect this data in the future.

NHS Information Services Division (ISD) recently began work on a project setting up a congenital anomaly register. The project is called the Congenital Anomaly and Rare Disease Registration and Information System Scotland (CARDRISS). CARDRISS is at the beginning of a 3 year project; actively looking to do a complex linkage to produce best estimates of all anomaly types (including Down’s Syndrome) from existing data but the timescale for the results of this are not confirmed yet.

If you want to keep up to date with CARDRISS you can find out more on the ISD Website - https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Maternity-and-Births/CARDRISS/ .

Question reference: S5W-22401

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it will announce details of the Wave 4 capital spending for Edinburgh's schools.

The Wave 4 Programme is the City of Edinburgh Council's school infrastructure investment programme. However, through our Scotland's Schools for the Future Programme, the City of Edinburgh Council has been awarded over £63 million towards the construction of four school projects.

In spite of the good work of the programme, which completes in March 2020, there is still more to do. This is why the Deputy First Minister announced the new £1 billion schools investment programme at the end of November 2018. The Scottish Government are engaging with COSLA, and other key stakeholders, to agree a new Learning Estate Strategy and an outcomes based funding model for future schools investment.

The 2019-20 Local Government Finance settlement provides the City of Edinburgh Council with £110.6 million Capital funding, an additional £20.1 million (22.3%) compared to 2018-19.

Question reference: S5W-22520

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 23 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when plans for the implementation of non-invasive prenatal testing will be published, and whether the plans will be open to public consultation.

The UK National Screening Committee undertook a three month public consultation in 2015 which informed its subsequent recommendations on Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) in 2016 and endorsed by the Scottish Screening Committee in March 2018. Given that the Scottish Government is advised on all aspects of screening by the UK National Screening Committee, we do not plan to run any additional public consultation.

The implementation plans for NIPT are not held by the Scottish Government, they are held by National Services Scotland (NSS); the organisation which is leading on the implementation of NIPT on behalf of NHS Scotland. Request for access to any plans should therefore be made to NSS.

Question reference: S5W-22519

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 23 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many women have had fetal anomaly screening in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S5W-22261

Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to ensure that the roll out of 5G across Scotland will not result in the removal of healthy trees from the urban landscape.

Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) sets out that the planning system should support digital connectivity, in particular infrastructure provision which is sited and designed to keep environmental impacts to a minimum. SPP also sets out policy protection for trees and the wider environment. We will carry out a wide review of the National Planning Framework and SPP following on from the current Planning Bill.